


A Particularly Stormy Night

by Mook5



Category: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 17:05:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8409655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mook5/pseuds/Mook5
Summary: Jensen/Pritchard





	

It was very late at Sarif Industries, even by Pritchard's standards. With the whole world going crazy outside, everyone's emotions were at their breaking points. The computer tech stared at his almost empty cup of coffee. He finished up his reports, updates, and pretty much all his work not too long ago. There was something else bugging him though. 

Adam Jensen.

'Fuck' Pritchard rubbed his face. He started off not liking the man at all. When Sarif brought Jensen in despite Pritchard's protests, he viewed Jensen as proof that no one in the company cares what he actually has to say. Jensen was better than any kind of advice he had to offer. Jensen was better than he was in every way. Jensen Jensen Jensen, it was all about Jensen. 

Of course, they were forced to work with each other and Pritchard showed his displease about that any chance he could get. Of course Jensen brushed everything off with that bad-ass-dude ego of his. After a while Pritchard found himself liking these little spats they had. And then the massive terrorist attack happened and Jensen nearly got killed with so many others.  
That had scared and left him feeling helpless.  
But the realization that he was scared and helpless for Jensen absolutely terrified him. He never wanted to feel that way again. He was hopeless when it came to socializing and dealing with those kind of emotions. He purposefully pushed everyone away from him just to avoid the slightest bit of emotional distress.

Jensen of course survived and Pritchard came up with a crazy plan to never experience feeling helpless again. He would cut off this little “friendship-bickering” thing they had going on. He vowed never to let anyone that close to him again. Though they were forced to work together again, Pritchard didn't bother giving Jensen any pity and stepped up on his 'asshole' attitude. It stung a little bit at first, but the fact that he was in control didn't leave him so vulnerable feeling now. 

Jensen sometimes let Pritchard get to him but most of the time he just shrugged it off. Pritchard tried his damn hardest to mentally build walls around himself, but they started to spend so much time around each other and those walls started to slowly crumble again. Not only he found that he was caring for this stupid man, he was holding his breath every time Jensen walked into a dangerous situation.

And that awful god-forbidden feeling of helplessness came back.

It was a crippling feeling, one of those kinds of feelings that constricted the chest and making it hard to breathe. 

Sometimes he wondered how ANYONE deals with something like that. 

Thunder rolled outside. Pritchard yawned and opened some camera views outside. It was raining. Ugh, that was going to be a fun motorcycle ride home.  
Shit, he'd been sitting at his desk thinking about Jensen this entire time. That couldn't of been normal. He figured it was symptoms of his still decaying mental walls.

And then a knock on his door. 

Mother. Fucking. Jensen. Of course.  
But he wasn't angry. No, angry would be the proper response. His heart nearly skipped and he felt quite happy to see Jensen now walking into his office.

Happy? He was losing his goddamn mind, maybe it was from being tired. He was mentally confused. He was also staring at Jensen.

Jensen stopped when he saw this almost unreadable and weird face on Pritchard. Guilty? Scared? He knew Pritchard was quite expressive, but he had no idea that Pritchard could practically invent new expressions. “Francis..?” 

Pritchard cleared his throat and rubbed his face. Shit, nice going Frank. You probably look like the biggest dumbass ever. “What, what do you want, Jensen?” Trying to hide his emotions back now was like trying to fly ever.

Jensen slightly lifted an eyebrow. “You know its storming outside, right?”

“Yes, Jensen, I have ears too you know.” Pritchard frowned and lifted up his chin.

“Well, do you need a ride home or something?” Jensen crossed his arms.

“Just because it's a little wet outside doesn't mean I don't know how to ride my bike.” Pritchard replied with complimentary various facial expressions.

Jensen's turn to frown. “You really think that's a good idea?”

“Watch out, you sound like you might care or something.”

“I'm being serious, Francis.” 

Emotions started to build up in Pritchard and it was definitely time to get the hell out. He grabbed his keys and helmet and started for the door. 

“Francis.” Jensen said a bit more sternly and stepped in front of him.

Pritchard quickly tried to dodge him. This isn't good.

“Francis!” Jensen grabbed his arm.

Pritchard looked up at Jensen. There was an expression of concern and…worry. On Jensen's face. For him. Pritchard's eyes went big.

“Pritchard, what...what's the matter?” Jensen studied him. He looked frightened. “What's wrong?”

 

Pritchard just stared in stupor. Jensen holding him back like that...

...He loved it. “I...”

Jensen's eyebrows started to go up a bit. Pritchard was the only one he actually trusted in this place. Somehow he felt safer with Pritchard in the picture. He'd grown quite attached to him as he didn't actually shower him with pity yet was always there in a weird way. Last week Pritchard accidentally gave him a sincere smile and it stirred something inside Jensen. Everything about it was so wrong and he'd been losing sleep over it since. He just couldn't admit to himself, and like hell he was going to waltz up to Pritchard and admit anything to him. Jensen blinked himself out of the little trance he was in and asked. “Are you okay Francis?”

If it could, Pritchard's heart could of just called it a day early and stop right there. His snide comments and defense mechanisms were lost in the rest of the millions things going on in his head. “Jens...” whispered.

Jensen leaned a bit closer to hear, or at least that's what he told himself. His hand let go of Pritchard's arm and trailed down it a bit. 

Pritchard leaned a bit forward instinctively. He felt the last of his mental walls crashing to the ground. Part of him was shocked that he never saw this coming. Jensen was the LAST person he thought was...and even so, into HIM of all people. He kept trying to push him away this whole time.

Jensen hated this and yet he craved it so much. The only time he wasn't spiraling into loneliness was around this man. Everyone else always reminded him that he was not exactly human, some kind of tool, or even Frankenstein's monster. With this man though, he was still him. His other arm trailed up to Pritchard's chin very slowly.

Pritchard could barely breathe. The realization of the situation was crashing down on him. He was confident when it came to computers and programs, but people was uncharted territory. He actually liked what he had with Jensen and he knew he would mess this up somehow. He was going to get rejected and lose everything. Jensen crawled through every defense he built up and now has the ability to strap a bomb to his heart and set it off. That scared-no, it terrified him. It was what he was trying to avoid this entire time. He was going to cause the only fucking happy thing he had going on to crash and burn. “I c-can't Jensen, I just..I...” Still holding his helmet and keys, he bolted out of the door, nearly hyperventilating. 

“Fra- Pritchard! Fucking hell, Pritchard!” Jensen growled in frustration and confusion. 

Pritchard sprinted down the stairs and ran out the front door, ignoring the massive downpour. Even with the booming thunder Jensen's voice was echoing in his head. He himself let this happen and was too helpless to do anything about it. He hopped on his bike and dashed off, his bike screaming off some of the frustration inside him.

Jensen nearly crashed out the front doors when he realized Pritchard was actually going for his bike. Hell, Jensen started this whole thing because he was worried about him riding that damn thing in this storm. He saw Pritchard jump on his bike and knew he wouldn't be able to reach him. God dammit. He ran for his car instead, pinging Pritchard madly. He never pulled out of a parking lot as fast as he then did in his life. 

Pritchard pushed his bike faster than it could possibly take it. He was hydroplaning down the rarely empty road as his speedometer continued to rise. 

“PRITCHARD!!” A little voice screamed in his ear. Fuck he forgot to turn off his infolink.   
Jensen floored his car as he flipped on augments that followed Pritchard's signal. Holy shit the man was going fast. One wrong move and he was going to get himself killed. Fuck. “Pritchard! Please, just fucking talk to me, look, I'm sorry about that, I don't know what I was thinking.” He rambled on, hoping something was getting through. “Pritchard! Fucking, PLEASE, just say something!!”   
A little window in his vision informed him Pritchard slowed enough to turn on a large road that led straight out of the city. Dammit Francis. “Please, can we just talk?! This isn't isn't worth fucking getting yourself killed over!” Jensen was nearly begging at this point, the rain on his windshield was so loud he could barely even hear himself yelling. 

Pritchard burned off the rest of his panicked state and began to slow down, listening to a very frantic Jensen in his ear. He'd never heard him sound like that before.   
Slowly he came to his senses and decided to pull over before his bike or him died. Jensen was probably going to kill him anyways. Eventually a car appeared and pulled over next to him. He took off his helmet, stood up straight, took a deep breath, no running away this time.

Jensen got out and without a word walked over to Pritchard and pulled him into an extremely tight hug.   
Pritchard's emotions that he'd been bottling up for years and years finally maxed out it's limit and blew it's top. He erupted into sobbing mess, burying his head into Jensen. His fears of drowning in an emotional ocean came back. This time he realized that Jensen was a life raft and he wasn't going to let go. “I'm sorry…I was, I couldn't, I-I was scared- ”

“It's fine, Francis.” Jensen pulled back and gave him a smile.

Pritchard wiped both tears and rain from his face and looked back up at Jensen and smiled back. “I was ..I was fucking terrified of messing it up. I really like you, I- I didn't want to lose that..”

Jensen smiled even bigger. “Hey, you know I'm not going anywhere.”

Pritchard gave a nervous laugh, pushing back his soaked hair. “So, um, where did we leave off?”

Jensen rolled his eyes and grinned, then leaned forward and planted a kiss before wrapping his arms around him again. "Come on, Francis, let's get out of here."


End file.
